[Nhcoll-l] Shelf depth for EtOH jar collections

[Rob Robins]

Hi Tonya et al.,
Related to shelf depth is of course the height at which you space the shelves in your new facility.

Many collections "start" with all shelves spaced at a minimum meant to accommodate the largest jar in common use.

For many in the U.S. that is 1 gallon jar (~4 liters) of approximately 300mm height.

The trouble with this approach of course is that as the collection grows, shelf spacing "devolves" to lower heights as managers take pains to accommodate growth (and they are pains).

This is an easy trap to fall into, as at least in fishes, most fish and fish lots are small, and collections grow and space must be "made."

(E.g., a recent randomized survey of 65 of our 5,286 shelves projects that of the UF Fish Collection's 178,000 containers, 67,032 are 4oz jars (118 ml)).

Inevitably, this course of action leads to conflicts whereby still more new materials in large jars need to be placed on shelves that can no longer accommodate them. At least if one is to try and maintain a semblance of current phylogenetic order (something few, if any large collections accomplish - on those that do inevitably, only for a short moment in time).

( The cost to specimens is real - when staff can't "fit" a jar on a shelf - I have seen specimens crammed into containers too small for their proper keeping, sometimes with disastrous results - all in an effort to keep one "group" of fishes together on the same shelf space).

At UF we are implementing a barcode driven, container size arrangement of the UF Fish Collection. Just a handful of the benefits include: a true inventory of the collection as it moves, updated in real time; an enormous space savings that extends the life of the facility by decades, no more large scale collection shifts, and an always current phylogeny of fishes exported to data aggregators from our Specify database.

If you'd like more details about our plans and the challenges and results to date, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Best wishes,

Rob Robins

Robert H. Robins
Collection Manager
Division of Ichthyology
[FLMNH Fishes logo email small]
Florida Museum
1659 Museum Rd.
Gainesville, FL 32611-7800
Office: (352) 273-1957
rhrobins at flmnh.ufl.edu<mailto:rhrobins at flmnh.ufl.edu>

The UF Fish Collection is moving:
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/fish/

Search the Collection:
http://specifyportal.flmnh.ufl.edu/fishes/

Search samples suitable for dna analysis:
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/grr/holdings/



From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Tom Schiøtte
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2023 4:47 AM
To: Haff, Tonya (NCMI, Crace) <Tonya.Haff at csiro.au>; nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Shelf depth for EtOH jar collections

[External Email]
Hi Tonya,

In Copenhagen we (generally) use shelves that are 500 mm deep. The problems that Dirk outlined with deep shelves is solved by having jars placed in wooden trays that are 500 x 235 mm (and 70 mm tall). The whole tray can be taken out for topping up, and we don't risk toppling other jars if we reach for one at the inner part of the shelf. Moreover we have the benefit that we can put labels about contents on the outer end of the tray.

Larger jars that don't fit in the trays or on the shelves are put on bottom shelves with double or triple height.

For some historical reason one of our collections uses the system in a slightly downscaled version with smaller shelf depth and therefore shorter trays. The principle remains the same, though.

Cheers

Tom

Tom Schiøtte

Collection manager, Echinodermata & Mollusca
Natural History Museum of Denmark (Zoology)
Universitetsparken 15
DK 2100 Copenhagen OE

+45 35 32 10 48
TSchioette at snm.ku.dk<mailto:TSchioette at snm.ku.dk>



From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>> On Behalf Of Haff, Tonya (NCMI, Crace)
Sent: 15. februar 2023 04:26
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Shelf depth for EtOH jar collections

Hi again everyone,

We are getting down to the pointy bit of having to confirm the desired depth of shelving for our new ethanol vault storage. Right now our shelves are only about 300mm deep, which is really not deep enough for some larger containers. We have specified 440mm deep shelving for the new space, but before pushing 'go' I thought I would ask if any of you have thoughts or very strong opinions about optimal shelf depth for storing jars of various sizes and smaller drums.

Thanks in advance for your input!

Cheers,

Tonya

-------------------------------------------------
Dr. Tonya M. Haff
Collection Manager
Australian National Wildlife Collection
CSIRO
+61(0)419569109
https://www.csiro.au/en/about/facilities-collections/collections/anwc<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.csiro.au%2Fen%2Fabout%2Ffacilities-collections%2Fcollections%2Fanwc&data=05%7C01%7Crhrobins%40flmnh.ufl.edu%7Cd1d4d335d50c4b77c6ad08db0f399ae1%7C0d4da0f84a314d76ace60a62331e1b84%7C0%7C0%7C638120512320294219%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=UklVOKO1bjSa2esMgJF%2BoaIYJdhWvYt7nJIXcvglUJM%3D&reserved=0>

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